Denis Hickie believes Ireland are entering unknown territory when they face France in Dublin tomorrow.

The Irish are full of confidence after sweeping aside Scotland at Murrayfield and then Italy in Rome for an unbeaten start to their 2003 RBS 6 Nations Championship campaign.

Although many fans are already dreaming of a first Grand Slam since 1948, Leinster wing Hickie knows the French will present a real challenge to Ireland's hopes at Lansdowne Road tomorrow.

``It's going to be a very close game,'' he said.

``I suppose the fact we are playing at home as well as looking at our two results so far will mean people will give us a very good chance.

``We do have a very good chance, but France are so far ahead of what we have played up to now that it's so hard to gauge how difficult it will be.

Hickie added: ``We do know, though, it's going to be very hard. I think France are really strong.

``It was very close for them against England when they were probably unlucky.

``If they had played as well as they did in the first 20 minutes and the last 20 minutes for the rest of the match, they would probably have beaten England.

``And I thought they beat Scotland without getting out of second gear in Paris.

``They are a very, very dangerous side and I hope people realise the magnitude of the challenge they present to us this weekend as opposed to the two games we have played so far.''

But Hickie admitted it was so far, so good for Eddie O'Sullivan's side in terms of results, even if he felt Ireland had not yet quite hit their peak.

He said: ``We are happy with the way we dealt with the pressure of the Scotland game and obviously the win which was very important, more so than how we played.

``We had a bit of a challenge playing Italy and we weren't altogether happy with how we played - but we were obviously glad we came away with a win in the end.

``It's a good sign that we can win well without playing too well.

``But coming into the France match, we know it's going to be completely different.

``What's required is completely different. We will really be focusing on tweaking our game to suit the opposition.

``We approach every opponent differently in terms of tactics and how we play against France will obviously have to be very different compared to how we played against Italy or Scotland.''